Landlocked

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In 2014 the phrase ‘human shields’ was in the news more often than ever before.

It appears as if each and every Gaza citizen is locked-up and sealed off from getting out, to have free contact with the outside world, whilst the rest of the world is equally blocked off from having free access to the people of Gaza. Keep the people of Gaza in their place; fence them in (or out) and throw away the key.

The work LANDLOCKED consists of old industrial metal seals or locks, the kind that are used to seal up containers for bullet cartridges. There are almost as many seals (2100) as the number of people who died in Gaza (2140) in the 2014 conflict. The seal wires are all broken and the ammunition gone. I deployed the seals in military formation on an intermediary sheet of extruded acrylic placed over a background of makeshift boarding and a text made up of smashed and burnt porcelain. LANDLOCKED is my way of shaking my head in disbelief.

I don’t want say too much about LANDLOCKED, but the following comes to mind:

• Rocket attacks on kindergartens
• Lack of compassion from so called Christians
• A God who presumes to take sides and promises land and favours to His chosen
• The deaths of 1600 adults and 540 children in Gaza (2140) compared to deaths on Israeli side – 66 soldiers, 5 civilians and 1 child (72)
• Apartheid
• Thou shalt not kill ... except
• Love thy enemies